Our RWTH TIM Innovation Expert Circle is an exclusive network for a selected group of innovation practitioners who want to collaborate with the RWTH TIM Group in the framework of a sponsoring membership.

The main objectives of our network are the connection between innovation managers, in a setting in which you can exchange with practitioners, learn about best practices from executive speakers, discuss latest trends in innovation management, get exclusive insights into our research, and build valuable networks.

The Research Area “Technology, Innovation, Marketing & Entrepreneurship”, short TIME, was established at RWTH Aachen University in 2012. Jointly, we pursue an ambitious teaching and research programme with a clear focus on the ideation, development and commercialization of technological innovation.

Together with colleague Prof. Peter Letmathe we are offering our MOOC courses "fundamentals of economies" and "finance and accounting" on iversity.org. Courses are completely free and start Oktober 15th. And you can even get ECTS-Credits!

Annually, our school of business and economics at RWTH Aachen University honors those who graduated in the past year with a great graduation ceremony. Traditionally, one of these graduates gives an address. We are very proud that this year our colleague Franziska Miebach had the honor to hold this address, and wish her and all other graduates the best for their respective future plans.

We would like to announce the R&D Management Conference 2015 which will take place from June 23rd to 26th hosted by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Leading representatives from industry and academia in the field of R&D Management from all over the world will meet at pisa, italy. The conference topic, that is “(Fast?) Connecting R&D”, will take a broad perspective on technology and innovation management. You can find an overview of the conference tracks here: http://www.rnd2015.sssup.it/call-for-paper.html

Moreover, we would like to call your attention to the track on business model innovation and to invite you to contribute a submission for the conference. The track will take a multiperspective look on new ways to develop and analyze business model innovation:

How can companies identify disruptive business models?

What determines successful pioneer and follower strategies with business model innovations?

How can companies use patterns as tool to develop and implement new business models? Which patterns have proven to be more successful than others?

How can a transformation of the existing business model be organized to lead companies to success?

For more information, please find attached a summary of the business model innovation track at the R&D Management Conference 2015.

We would be delighted to receive a submission of you and we would be grateful if you could forward the invitation to anybody who might be concerned.

After the great success in 2013, RWTH TIM Group offers the especially designed lecture: “Success Factors and Practice of Innovation and Technology Management“ again this year. Lectures will be held by Dr. Rolf-Christian Wentz and numerous great guest lecturers. For exact dates, locations and guest speakers please see the list below.

This course is based on practice (multiple case studies, various guest lectures) and theory. It (1) presents fundamental success factors of any innovation management and introduces the concept of the innovation management system. Issues referring to the management of innovations will be displayed from different perspectives and adequate solutions will be derived from the innovation management system. Second, it deals with the individual components (vision and objectives, strategy, culture, process, structure etc.) of the innovation management system in depth and explains critical decisions that had been made to ensure the success of a company as an innovator.

This is some great news for our research area and especially for Prof. Frank T. Piller of TIM and Dr. David Antons of ISO: Our joint article on “Not-Invented-Here” has been accepted into the Academy of Management Perspecives, one of the leading academic journals, regularly amongst those with the highest impact factor and frequently consulted even by practitioners.

The Not-Invented-Here (NIH) syndrome describes a negative attitude towards knowledge (ideas, technologies) derived from an external source. NIH potentially is one of the most cited constructs in the literature on knowledge transfer, and also is a common phrase in management practice. Previous research, however, exhibits an abundance of different conceptualizations of NIH, and no clear understanding of its antecedents, underlying attitudes, and behavioral consequences.

Building on recent research in psychology, an extensive review of the management literature on NIH, and a review of empirical studies focused on NIH, this paper contributes to a better understanding of NIH. We developed a framework of different sources classifying knowledge as “external” which might trigger a general, attitude-based rejection of such knowledge inputs, irrespective of their specific value. Differentiating various functions of an attitude, we identify possible trajectories linking NIH with individual behavior and decision-making. We apply this understanding to develop an extensive agenda for future research.

Copenhagen, the European Green Capital 2014: From September 16th to 18th our team participated at the Conference “Boosting Eco-Innovation through Cooperation in Research and Development” organized by the ECO INNOVERA network. After four years of collaboration, exchange and networking with European, associated partners and networks on Eco-Innovations the ECO INNOVERA consortium held its final event bringing together researchers, practitioners and public representatives.

It was a great conference with stimulating talks and inputs and great contribution. We received very positive feedback and useful recommendations from the other participants and environmental experts for our ECO INNOVERA funded project (SMC-Excel: Enhancing Sustainability by Mass Customization for European Consumer Electronics) presented by our research associate Stephan Hankammer.

No, this is not a post about the decades old video game of pong. The pong of 2014 comes from face-tracking expert OMRON and will put your skills to a serious test. If you get a chance to battle it. Full report and video on Engadget.

Munich based open innovation specialist HYVE has launched a new contest, this time all about clutches and combustion engines. The specific question is:

An internal combustion engine (ICE) can be started by an electric machine. This procedure is determined as a tow-start and is used in many forms in today’s powertrains. The coordination of e-machine, clutch and ICE is challenging. A quick and smooth start has to be ensured.

With the Engineering Contest, HYVE wants to probe the causes and generate new, innovative ideas for clutch systems connecting electrical machines and ICE. How can clutch systems be designed to guarantee a smooth interplay between electric machine and internal combustion engine over a defined lifetime?

Everybody who has ideas to solve this challenge is invited to submit them at www.engineering-contest.com and take a chance to win great prizes. Deadline is November 26th!

3D-Printing (Additive Manufacturing) is a really trending technology that can and likely will have a major influence on the future of industrial production (and business models) as well as chances to DIY produce goods that previously had to be ordered at a high price from local crafters (like your favorite italian restaurant).

However, with that really bright future and the perspective to make another Star Trek dream a reality (the replicator), there comes a downside: You can not only print spare parts to repair your broken laundry machine but also such objects that should probably be more regulated.

Amongst them are firearms of all kinds. To those that monitor the 3D-Printing scene Cody Wilson’s 3D printed guns are old – although still worrying – news. However, now the man has gone one step further, offering a specially designed CNC mill that can produce the most critical part of a modern assault rifle, called the lower reciver. It is also the most regulated part, for a good reason. The Verge has the full story but from that alone it becomes aparent that with the new technologies that are becoming available for private households, new problems will arise alongside the many new chances.

“Open Education Lab” is a discussion platform designed within the scope of an academic project by Prof. Johann Füller at the University of Innsbruck, investigating novel approaches and concepts in the field of open education in an open-minded way. The research study discusses common questions about open education, mainly based on a broad analysis of the concept of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Furthermore, the project aims to gain new insights on the development of innovative educational developments also within the industrial sector.

Together with his team, Prof. Füller performed a broad market research and installed the discussion platform to gather opinions from Key Opinion Leaders in the field concerning three main topics (the following content is quoted from the discussion platform www.openeducationlab.at). If you are interested in discussing with other experts please write an email to info@openeducationlab.at and you will get your personal account information.

1. MOOCS – Hype or stable trend? Technologies & Development

MOOCs comprise the possibility to reach learners all around the globe. Users can learn “www” – wherever, whenever and whatever, the spectrum of courses offered is immense. Topics ranging from the natural sciences over managing trainings to yoga classes are thought for free. However, high quality education might not always be ensured. We would like to propose potential weaknesses of instantaneously offered MOOCs and likely challenges for the successful implementation of MOOCs in the industrial educational landscape.Informal LearningEvery strength comes with a weakness! Although MOOCs provide the user with freedom of choice regarding subject, schedule and quantity of content, in order to successfully complete a course a high degree of self-organization, self-discipline and time management is demanded from the learner. High drop-put rates are the result.

Technical QualificationIn order to produce a MOOC, certain technical qualifications need to be mastered by the producing institution and the lecturing speaker. Although general guidelines can be found on the web, a control for quality is rarely offered. Technical training and mediation of media competence are strongly recommendable.

CommunityActive engagement in the community is observed only in 10% of users. Interactivity, social integration, discussions and self-presentation are characteristics of traditional learning forms which are not adequately transferred to the MOOC landscape yet. However, peer-to-peer mentoring and collective thinking might produce the most creative results and intellectual approaches.

CertificationLearners might be interested in an official certification of qualification they obtained by completing courses. Accreditation from an acknowledged educational institution therefore represents a reasonable demand towards MOOC providers. Thus, cooperation with universities, (vocational) schools and other accreditation institutes should be of high interest also for MOOC suppliers in the industrial sector.

Mentoring and GuidanceBe it virtual or in-person: most learners appreciate some form of guidance during their educational training. MOOC providers rarely offer such support. One could imagine that the former traditional teacher might take the part of a mentor or content guide. Also guidance in form of an artificially intelligent coach might constitute an alternative. The community, on the other hand, could constitute a place for consultancy and support.

OpennessIn the traditional sense, openness with regard to education comprises characteristics such as open access to the content, open source software for the usage of the content, open educational resources (textbooks, applications, journals,…), open learning (flexibility, individualization) and open data (re-using, sharing). Are MOOCs truly as “open” as they are claimed to be?

Blended LearningMere online learning might not constitute the exclusive solution for most efficient and long-lasting learning success. The combination with an offline component, for example in form of presence seminars, discussion groups, group-work or hands-on training might help the learner to transfer the learned knowledge to “the real world”. Problem-solving tasks, training setups and working groups might therefore constitute essential tools in addition to the online presented content for the manifestation of the MOOC concept for education also within industry setting. Especially technical professions might benefit from such a blended learning form that combines online and offline elements.

2. MOOCs’ Strengths and Weaknesses: Challenges for the successful implementation in an educational institution

The Gartner Hype Cycle

Examining the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the hype cycle (A), we might derive that MOOCs stand at the through of their hype development. Consequently, in the very near future, a stable trend will likely dissociate from the unsteady hype. Similarly, the steady increase in user numbers of the main MOOC providers (B) suggests that the status quo is settling on the top of the hill, with user numbers ranging up to 10 million.

Technological Trends

Various technological trends and developments will strongly influence teaching, learning and the ways of communication between learners and educators. The inspection of these technologies on the hype cycle (C) allows for the differentiation between rather new and highly modifiable from steadily established tools. For the purpose of this study, we are interested which technological trends will permanently be incorporated in educational processes.

3. MOOCs spreading over the Educational Landscape – Does the dual education system have a need for MOOCs?

The (German) Education System – a classification

Within the scope of our study we were interested to examine existing MOOC providers for their target groups within the educational landscape in Germany. Therefore we categorized the following educational sectors (A):

1) secondary schools until 9th grade

2) secondary schools until 13th grade

3) Universities and technical colleges

4) Dual education system (vocational training schools)

5) Advanced training
Additional non-educational groups included:

6) Business companies

7) Socially and globally disadvantaged groups

Immense supply for universities – lack of offerings for the dual education system?By categorizing the main existing MOOC providers into the described sectors and groups (B), we observed a plethora of suppliers serving the target groups of universities (60% of the analyzed providers, C) and also advanced training in general (45% of the analyzed providers, C). However, vocational training school and the secondary educational system seem not to constitute a significant target group for MOOC providers (only 5% of the analyzed providers, C).

Want to share your thoughts on the (open) future of education and learning? Hope to see you at www.openeducationlab.at!

Summertime in Aachen, Germany. That means fairly volatile weather to say the least, fast switching between blistering hot days and horrific thunderstorms. Blessings of global warming.

Fortunately, there are other, less chameleonic places in the world. One of them, Boston, MA, was the place to be for open and user innovation researchers over the past days, anyways. Here, the leading conference about all aspects of innovating with externals in general and users in particular took place once again: The 12th Open and User Innovation Workshop (OUI) at Harvard Business School.

Ranging from Open Innovation, Open Source and Lead Users to Diffusion, User Innovation in Healthcare and the hot topic of Additive Manufacturing, tracks covered the entire range of modern open / user innovation research. And, as always and just like a big family reunion, the OUI brought together all those brilliant colleagues from universities around the world that one would love to discuss with on a more regular basis. A full list of tracks, topics and presenters can be found here (LINK).

Our group was also honored to contribute and present some of our latest research, including:

Beyond Pricing Decisions: Business Model Innovation in the Two Sided Market of an Open Innovation Intermediary (Andy Zynga, Dirk Lüttgens, Frank T. Piller)

A full list of all presentations and their abstracts can be found here (LINK)

A tweet says more than thousand words. In this sentiment here is a collection of what has been tweeted by various attendants during these three days in Boston, including a lot of pictures that really transport the great atmosphere of this excellent event.

And, last but most certainly not least, we want to say a heartfelt “thank you!” to those who excelled in organizing and hosting the OUI, once more: Carliss Baldwin (HBS), Karim Lakhani (HBS), Stefan Thomke (HBS), Eric von Hippel (MIT), Benjamin Mako Hill (University of Washington) and their entire team. It has been a great time!

The following is a repost of an excellent summary of our recent academic workshop on 3D printing, written by Prof. Joel West (KGI) and originally published on the Open Innovation Blog.

On Tuesday, Frank Piller and I hosted a successful workshop on 3D printing at RWTH Aachen. About 30 people attended the workshop: half from RWTH Aachen, the rest from other academic venues and a few from industry.

In many ways, 3D printing research reminds me of open source software research in 2001 or 2002. Frank says there is an explosion of research on 3D printing (i.e. more like OSS in 2005): I’m guessing this is concentrated in Europe because I’m not seeing it in the US. (But then, some of the early OSS research was phenomenon-based, which tends not to count much in U.S. business schools).

We had a deep dive into the science with Reinhart Poprawe, who’s both managing director of the Fraunhofer-Institut für Lasertechnik ILT and a professor at RWTH Aachen. With the rise of RepRap, MakerBot and other consumer technologies, most of us are familiar with the plastic (mostly FDM) 3D printing, but his focus is the high-quality, high-speed production of metal parts for industrial uses — which are the future of 3D printing as a manufacturing technique.

As an economic historian, I gave an overview of the first 30 years of 3D printing, outlining the path from the industrial prototyping companies of the 1980s (notably 3D Systems and Stratasys) through to the dozens of consumer-focused startups of this century. I noted three trends fueling the latter movement: the “maker” movement,open design communities and the expiration of a key patent. (Alas, I gave the talk in casual clothes, without benefit of the suitcase that AirBerlin delivered 24 hours after I arrived in Aachen.)

The RWTH Aachen business school (Frank) and the Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing (Simon Ford) summarized their respective research agendas. Not surprisingly, Frank’s group is interested in mass customization while Cambridge is using UK money “to examine the reality and the potential of digital fabrication for the UK economy.”

Thierry Rayna described how 3D printing is changing business model innovation, while Letizia Mortara talked about classifying 73 different maker spaces into 13 categories. Christian Weller of RWTH described experiments of allowing consumers to customize products and how they felt about their willingness to pay.

In our debrief, I noted the need to build a community of researchers that (as with the early days of OSS) read and build upon each other’s work. We don’t (or won’t) have a management journal, but there are several conferences. The best is Frank’s track on “Open Innovation and Additive Manufacturing” at the annual (von Hippel) Open and User Innovation Conference (where I hope to present). In June 2016, the Cambridge IfM group will be hosting the R&D Management Conference, so that’s another natural fit.

European OI researchers have also been fond of the annual ISPIM conference: the program for next week’s conference in Dublin mentions “open innovation,” including a plenary session on OI led by Wim Vanhaverbeke and a talk by Wim on the forthcoming New Frontiers in Open Innovation (Oxford, 2014). While 3D printing and additive manufacturing are nowhere mentioned at this year’s conference, there’s always next year.

For anybody interested in deeper insights into innovation management, leadership for innovation and more, there is now an additional source available. My colleague and partner at Competivation, Professor Hand-Gerd Servatius has started to share some of his knowledge based on over thirty years of professional consulting experience.

His posts are in German language but if you are able to read German (or use google translator), you can find a lot of quality information over at: http://www.competivation.de/blog

The past week were a highlight for every mass customization enthusiast as our colleagues from Aalborg University hosted this year’s edition of the MCPC Conference. We were there, of course, and, as always, a lot of tweeting and image-sharing took place. We will post more about some hot topics of the conference within the next days. Until then, here are some great impressions and voices from attendees some of you might recognize…

News from the organizing team of the MCPC 2014 in Aalborg: Please observe that there is a deadline on November 29th for early registration to reduced price 500€ compared to full price 600€. At the conference web site www.mcpc2014.aau.dk, you will find the registration page with link to online registration.

The planning of the conference is currently going into further detail regarding keynote sessions, academic sessions, and industry sessions with demonstrations of successful business applications, practices, and insights. See the official website for further info.